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Jonathan + Olivia expanded its specially-selected Topshop line last week, adding another layer of accessible high street chic to the Ossington Avenue store-within-a-store by launching the label’s final Kate Moss collection, along with additional items from Topman menswear and the new Topshop Make-Up range.

The other night at the Canfar Bloor Street Entertains fundraiser, I had the pleasure of being seated beside some bright young things. It was great fun—I enjoyed them and wondered at the verve and nerve.

But I was struck by the lack of history in the fashion industry of this city.

More particularly, mention of some of our classic eccentrics, I was struck by how fleeting fame and infamy is in this city. The currently current generation does not have a clear sense of what came before. Good heavens, someone must retain the grand memory of the years Bentley-driving Babs hairdresser Robert Gage wore nothing but white. Oh, except for the half-decade he wore only red.

Which brings me to Jie Matar. I first wrote about the self-professed “God of Hair” in Toronto Life when he opened his eponymous Parthenon on Avenue Road.

The new, reincarnated Jie is not on the bright young thing’s radar; then again, neither is the tale of his scandal and resurrection. Therein lies the tale: Fashion is a fleeting business. Good news is that we forget bad stuff. But bad news is we don’t celebrate the knotty stories that make larger-than-life legends like our embolden-empower American cousins.

Allie Hughes and band at 69 Vintage Collective. Story and photography by Brendan Adam Zwelling.

The subway is packed but the crowds aren’t filtering out to this edge of the Junction Triangle, well beyond the festival zones. Still, at the Bloor West home of the 69 Vintage Collective (1207 Bloor St. W.) the banner of public art is being unfurled under the auspices of their Soiree des Hiboux event, a Nuit Blanche celebration with art, food and music.

In this case, the art is provided by the Lolita & Consuela installation, a slide projection on the joys of an inebriated kitchen party, which plays casually in an upstairs window.

Beauty always takes a richer turn as fall breezes turn to winter winds. Liners get darker, shadows get deeper, and gloss falls to the bottom of the makeup bag, replaced by gorgeous matte lipsticks that feel like velvet on the lips. The loveliest hues this season come from the new Pure Matte Lipstick collection from NARS ($30 each, available at The Bay, hbc.com).

Our three favourite shades are highlighted above: Vesuvio (rich red), Terre de Feu (dark cherry), and Tonkin (plummy cinnamon). Test the long-lasting formula with a cup of hot apple cider, then add the other shades to your Christmas list.

Anne-Marie Chagnon knows how to make a statement. The Montreal-based jewellery designer creates pieces that get noticed, asked about, coveted. We love her dramatic, textural bracelets (like the Ziomedi, above) and her elegant Zitta necklace, which gracefully transforms into a darker, sexier piece. Anne-Marie’s new Pial collection features her most exciting work yet.

And guess what?

We want to give it you.

The Style Notebook has teamed up with Anne-Marie Chagnon to give one lucky reader the chance to win a $1,000 customized jewellery wardrobe. The winner will choose their favourite pieces, which Anne-Marie will make to order and send off in time for holiday gift-giving.

To enter, fill out a ballot after the jump, and bring it to Anne-Marie’s booth (#H44) at the One of a Kind Show, which runs from November 25 to December 5. We’ll announce the winner right here on December 6.

Thakoon Panichgul’s ascent in the fashion industry didn’t occur overnight. The designer, who obtained a degree in business before enrolling in Parsons School of Design, debuted his collection in 2004. His garments have graced the silhouettes of starlets like Marion Cotillard and Carey Mulligan, but his ultimate coup has been to dress First Lady Michelle Obama. One of the most feted designers of New York Fashion Week every season, Thakoon’s Midas touch is his thoughtful—and artful—approach in flattering the female form.

Recently, The Room at the Bay previewed Thakoon’s Spring 2011 collection at a trunk show with the designer in attendance. The trunk show also included pieces from his Fall 2010 and Resort 2011 collections.

Thakoon embarked on a flight of fancy with his Spring collection, keeping his signature romantic and feminine aesthetic while offering a lighter, airier fare. A sea of white, structured pieces balanced with billowy dresses, and unexpected details like exposed hook-and-eye closures and mesh. “Almost preppy but done in a feminine way,” said Thakoon.

A look from Lauren Bagliore Spring 2011, a collection that our veteran fashion writer saw through fresh eyes (with a little help from a friend). Story by Leanne Delap.

Fashion reporting has changed completely since my days on the tour. I whipped around London, Milan, Paris and New York for a half dozen years in the mid-90s as fashion reporter for the Globe and Mail before I had kids; later I cherry-picked ready-to-wear shows and five-starred the haute-couture a couple of times as editor-in-chief of FASHION. Though in the years hence I never stopped writing about fashion, I oft maintained that I’d sooner eat beetles than sit through another show. It sounds so glamorous, but humping through the full seven-week tour filing stories made me more tired than a toddler with projectile stomach flu.

That was a puerile dismissal, for I now realize I was very privileged to have witnessed some extraordinary moments: I remember now crying at the first McQueen show I saw at the Royal Horticultural Gardens when the late genius sent models out in filmy gowns shackled inside cages, wading through water. That was the show he hand-carved a leg prosthesis for model Amy Mullins. I sat behind the legendary Suzy Menkes from the International Herald Tribune, and beside Jerry Hall. Everyone was moved.

I was crammed into a gate rushing the buzzy first Theyskens show, where then-Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur was his Goth bride in elaborate black crepe corsetry. I saw Miyake’s final show, where 30 supermodels were strapped together in an undulating green silk cocoon at the Academy des Beaux Arts. (I was lucky enough to see the real supermodels in their runway heyday, the Naomis and Kates, even the Lindas, Helenas, and Christys at the Versace tribute show after his untimely death.)

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge, Victoria’s Secret Angels, touched down at the Eaton Centre last week. Story by Caitlin Agnew. Photography by Brendan Adam Zwelling.

Last Thursday marked the opening of Canada’s fourth Victoria’s Secret store and the first in downtown Toronto. Located at the Eaton Centre, the occasion brought two very special visitors to our city: Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge.

When asked if I was interested in meeting with the Angels to chat about Victoria’s Secret, I jumped at the chance—as did my (male) photographer. Who wouldn’t want to check out these mythic creatures in person? When we arrived for the interview, the door was flanked by two massive security guards. I wondered if they were hired to protect the models or the $2 million bra on display.